THE good news is that Juan Manuel Marquez ?Manny PacquiaoV might just happen now that ?Dinamita? has been knocked off his lofty self-righteous perch.
Even better news is that Timothy Bradley-Manny PacquiaoII just got more traction behind it.
Now all that Manny has to do is win and win impressively next month in Macau.
THE FIGHT. Marquez started off strong, scoring with two sneaky uppercuts in the first round. I gave that round to him. So did two of the judges.
Bradley won the second being busier, but Marquez stormed right back to take the third and two judges also gave him that round.
Bradley then decided to get some separation between him and his bull strong opponent, and his adjustment allowed him to win the next few rounds handily.
All three judges unanimously had Bradley winning rounds 5-7. Bradley looked sharp and fast, and Marquez was repeatedly tagged with jabs and right hands.
Marquez managed to rally in the ninth. I gave him that round and so did all three judges.
Bradley won the tenth on 2 judges? scorecards. Marquez came on strong in the 11th round again and 2 judges rewarded him for his effort.
Entering the last round however, Bradley was ahead 106-103 on two cards while Marquez was ahead 106-103 on the third card. Technically speaking then even a knockdown in the last round would not have altered the result.
Marquez really pushed the pace in the last round, but in the last exchange of the fight, Bradley nearly scored a knockdown with a big left hook. Still, I thought that single punch was not enough to merit Bradley winning that round but that blow was quite emblematic of the entire complexion of the bout.
It?s always difficult for a counter-puncher to match up with a moving, fluid boxer.
Marquez matched up well with Pacquiao whose aggressive style allowed Marquez to tag him with counters.
But when Bradley made adjustments and decided that boxing was the way to go, he romped away with majority of the rounds by darting in and out and defused Marquez? offense.
It certainly didn?t help matters that at 40 years of age, Marquez has noticeably lost some of his vaunted speed. The power is still there, but he couldn?t land enough to hurt the fleet-footed Bradley.
Notice also that at times, Bradley defended well by tucking in his chin and borrowing from Floyd Mayweather?s shoulder roll defense. When he did this, Marquez?s combinations landed harmlessly on his gloves and shoulders and Bradley also did a good job of slipping and rolling with the punches.
If you recall, Mayweatherthoroughly dominated Marquez in their 2009 encounter.
SOURGRAPING. I have the utmost respect for Nacho Beristain and Marquez (despite the fact that the latter drinks his own pee), but they are both clearly delusional if they think they won that fight.
While majority of the rounds were close and could arguably be scored either way, there were rounds that Bradley clearly won. I think Glen Feldman?s 115-113 was overly generous for Marquez who was a having a stylistic nightmare against the ?Desert Storm?.
Apparently, Marquez? team are convinced of the infallibility of their fighter but all that rings hollow now. Marquez is also convinced he won all the first three Pacquiao fights, did not deserve to lose to Cris John in Indonesia.
Go easy on the Vitamin Pguys, I hear ammonia gets into your head, resulting in hallucinations.
LAST ROUND. It?s on supermom and grandma, Tita C. Zosa, who recently celebrated her birthday Cheers!
